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I'm finding various online "design your own figure"-type sites and trying to design figures that look as close to me as possible for a self-portrait collage project. This is surprisingly tricky when one (a) wears glasses, which aren't always offered, and (b) normally has blonde/brown hair and currently dyes it vaguely-reddish/blonde. What hair color to pick?

August 18, 2012

How long does it take to make a "one hour" dress?

A few weekends ago I found some lovely Mardi Gras mask fabric that I wanted to make a dress out of. I wanted the simplest possible dress I could find (second one from the left) and got this "one hour" pattern. But as I said to someone else as I started this thing, a "one hour" dress DOES NOT TAKE ONE HOUR. Want to know why? Here's how much time I spent on this puppy today:

11:20-11:50: Pin and cut pattern pieces to interfacing fabric, unpin pattern paper from pieces of fabric. (Note that I got through watching an entire documentary while this was happening.)

11:50-12:10 p.m.: Trim down interfacing edges.

12:10-12:20: Pin dress sides and shoulders together.

12:20-12:30: Iron on the interfacing to the pieces that need it, remove the pins.

12:30-12:40: Sew shoulder and side seams on dress.

12:40-12:45: Try the dress on.

12:45-1:05: Attempt to make slight alterations to the fit of the dress (i.e. taking it in at the waist), which turns out not to work. Remove alterations.

1:05-1:15: Sew facing pieces together, finish the edge.

1:15-1:40: Sew facing to dress. Then realize I fucked it up because I apparently shouldn't have had sewn the shoulders together in the first place to do this, and now I can't flip the facing pieces to go inside the dress.

1:40-1:55: Take out the shoulder seams, flip the facing the right way, resew the shoulder seams.

1:55-2:10: Pin, iron, and sew the hem. Done!

So basically it takes about two hours just to get to the point of sewing the thing. I had the occasional fuckup here and there, which happens when sewing even when you've done it for umpteen years.

I generally find that four hours is a good estimate to make well, anything that should be super simple. Sad but true. That's a word to the wise, and the newbie sewers. Hell, the oldbie sewers. It always takes a lot more time to sew anything than you think it's going to. Also, never sew angry.